1192 replies to this topic

[Samriel]

Spoiler

Hmmm, I have finally reached BG2 and I wonder what are the obligatory quests to play RtF or at least had the chance to get the "best" ending/s? The readme hinted that Sandrah's full history must be discovered and the player must discover all that the "Book that Writes Itself" has to reveal about her. Any hints what quests one has to undergo to accomplish that?

[Roxanne]

Spoiler

Hmmm, I have finally reached BG2 and I wonder what are the obligatory quests to play RtF or at least had the chance to get the "best" ending/s? The readme hinted that Sandrah's full history must be discovered and the player must discover all that the "Book that Writes Itself" has to reveal about her. Any hints what quests one has to undergo to accomplish that?

You should find everything if you play the main quest of SoA + the TDD extension to get into ToB. Anyway, some hints (you move at quite some pace through the game, so you may miss stuff).

Spoiler

An orc shaman can be found in the slums (You may have seen him before in Baldur's Gate if you explored the Iron Throne Quarter of town. You will get a hint to the girl the orcs on the fields of death were referring to.

Sandrah will hint to a Jansen gnome on the Promenade offering trips.
Taking one will start the Shauhana quest

After the Spellhold escape you will find hints with either the Gith or the Fishpeople on the trip to Underdark.

You can do one ofthe mods containing Mystra contents whenever you want (Planar Sphere, Anegh or wait for Landrel to take you to Waterdeep)
Follow all invitations to Waterdeep you receive

As usual talk to Sandrah often, especially after your return from Underdark and the first hints to the book.
Find the book
Have her ijn the party when you face Irenicus
Have her in the party after Irenicus until the transition to ToB

ah, and you have to pass some kind of compatability check from her, where she will decide if she wants to carry on with you

 

Of course there is a lot more but this is essentially what you need for the main quest..

[Roxanne]

Spoiler

Hmmm, I have finally reached BG2 and I wonder what are the obligatory quests to play RtF or at least had the chance to get the "best" ending/s? The readme hinted that Sandrah's full history must be discovered and the player must discover all that the "Book that Writes Itself" has to reveal about her. Any hints what quests one has to undergo to accomplish that?

You should find everything if you play the main quest of SoA + the TDD extension to get into ToB. Anyway, some hints (you move at quite some pace through the game, so you may miss stuff).

Spoiler

An orc shaman can be found in the slums (You may have seen him before in Baldur's Gate if you explored the Iron Throne Quarter of town. You will get a hint to the girl the orcs on the fields of death were referring to.

Sandrah will hint to a Jansen gnome on the Promenade offering trips.
Taking one will start the Shauhana quest

After the Spellhold escape you will find hints with either the Gith or the Fishpeople on the trip to Underdark.

You can do one ofthe mods containing Mystra contents whenever you want (Planar Sphere, Anegh or wait for Landrel to take you to Waterdeep)
Follow all invitations to Waterdeep you receive

As usual talk to Sandrah often, especially after your return from Underdark and the first hints to the book.
Find the book
Have her ijn the party when you face Irenicus
Have her in the party after Irenicus until the transition to ToB

ah, and you have to pass some kind of compatability check from her, where she will decide if she wants to carry on with you

 

Of course there is a lot more but this is essentially what you need for the main quest..

Mabe some other helpful hints

Spoiler

Do not take NPCs that will leave you for good when you kick them out before you do the Shauhana quest. You need a party slot for the girl and later for Minsc - Since both will leave you during the quest you have a chance to recruit other NPCs to fill your party by then.
The Shauhana quest is not finished when you get her out of Clan land and found the fountain. Upon return to Amn you will be invited to the REAL quest that gives you the first glimpse of one of the later RtF opponenets.

[Samriel]

Any suggestions on which characters are a must in BG2? Or at least heavily recommended?

 

I cannot imagine leaving Sandrah's besta friend out of my party and I cannot leave my own PC nor Sandrah so I kinda wondered which options for the remaining 3 would be best.

[Roxanne]

Any suggestions on which characters are a must in BG2? Or at least heavily recommended?
 
I cannot imagine leaving Sandrah's besta friend out of my party and I cannot leave my own PC nor Sandrah so I kinda wondered which options for the remaining 3 would be best.

 

Any suggestions on which characters are a must in BG2? Or at least heavily recommended?
 
I cannot imagine leaving Sandrah's besta friend out of my party and I cannot leave my own PC nor Sandrah so I kinda wondered which options for the remaining 3 would be best.

The only ones that are a must (if only for a limited period) are mentioned above. Other than that there are some that have more content with Sandrah than others. This is a bit reflecting my personal taste for the SoA NPCs, Generally I prefer some of the mod NPCs to most Bioware originals during this part of the game.
For the early part of Amn Haer'dalis might be interesting, he has a longer quest with Sandrah - once that is done you may kick him out unless you like him for other purpose.
For the Underdark sequence Xulaye (Phaere's sister - if you have her installed) and Sandrah provide some interesting additions to a well known part of the game.
If Viconia is with you, there is a special quest for her while in Athkathla.
Chloe and Yasraena have a lot of interactions with Sandrah and are candidates for keeping - but they have no romance with a male PC...
Kido may be interesting for the Cyric/Mystra conflict that is implied.
There is another larger quest that works with any of the paladins (Keldorn, Anomen...) I sometimes take one of them into the party for those periods where my beloved NPC has been kidnapped or such (there are quite a few that disappear for a time and await their rescue, there is rarely one that sets a timer to make the quest urgent).
You may want to check out this http://www.shsforums...-crossmod-list/ again, or just make a choice according to your taste.

 

Usually my SoA party is quite dynamic while I progress (Imoen is gone until Spellhold, I need Shauhana for her quest and Minsc for a short period. NPCs like Sime or Fade come late, so I can do some others for the first period in Amn. I can leave Yasraena when she finished her quest in the Underdark and pick up Xulaye and maybe even Solaufein). A number of NPCs have little content once I come out of the Underdark, so I can recruit some new ones still as with TDD and Sandrah and some other mods installed I have still a long way to go until the tree of life (Just make sure to take a look at some BCS or readme stuff to know those NPCs that you need to have before the Underdark to start their quest/romance/friendship).

Edited by Roxanne, 12 July 2015 - 08:24 AM.

[Samriel]

*Sight* I had to kick out Minsc when in Irenicus dungeon to make place for Drizzt, Wulfgar, Chloe and Yasraena. And there seems to be a bug where the game freezes if I got to the surface with a party of 6-5 so I can only have 4 party members when I escape Irenicus dungeon.

 

Now he does not appear in Copper Coronet.

 

I wonder if that is how Bioware intended or he died under the rubble even though he said he would go to an inn or a tavern.

 

Guess I need to go back to the save before I kicked him out....

 

Or maybe is there some cheat to make Minsc reappear?

Edited by Samriel, 13 July 2015 - 02:23 AM.

[Roxanne]

*Sight* I had to kick out Minsc when in Irenicus dungeon to make place for Drizzt, Wulfgar, Chloe and Yasraena. And there seems to be a bug where the game freezes if I got to the surface with a party of 6-5 so I can only have 4 party members when I escape Irenicus dungeon.

 

Now he does not appear in Copper Coronet.

 

I wonder if that is how Bioware intended or he died under the rubble even though he said he would go to an inn or a tavern.

 

Guess I need to go back to the save before I kicked him out....

 

Or maybe is there some cheat to make Minsc reappear?

None of this is related to the Sandrah mod, I would say.

I wonder why you took Drizzt and Wulfgar (Unless you skipped the Drizzt Saga in BG1 you could play RoT without them).

Why Minsc is not in the CC may be related to some other mod which places its NPCs there, it is definitely not Sandrah. Anyway, you could just CluaConsole him CreateCreature("Minsc8") when you are in the CC.

Edited by Roxanne, 13 July 2015 - 02:51 AM.

[Samriel]

I think it just happens by dismissing him in Irenicus dungeon as he waits in the inn if I dismiss him in any other place. A tragic end it would seem...

 

And yeah, I did not play Drizzt Saga as it forced me to kick out 3 other party members to whom I kinda grew attached.

 

Thanks for the cheat, I might still be able to complete Shauhana's quest.

 

Speaking of bugs...the only one Sandrah focused that I noticed was when I used Sandrah's ability to "Return from Waterdeep" and...nothing happened. Then I was unable to access BG2 areas and it was quite bad. HOWEVER, after I reloaded a few saves before visiting Waterdeep I used her ability to go there and then her ability to return from there and everything worked fine.

 

I wonder if the bug was due to her automatically initiating the travel to Waterdeep as she was told to come there as soon as possible. When I activated it through her there were no problems.

 

Really weird one time bug it would seem....

Edited by Samriel, 13 July 2015 - 03:22 AM.

[Roxanne]

I think it just happens by dismissing him in Irenicus dungeon as he waits in the inn if I dismiss him in any other place. A tragic end it would seem...

 

And yeah, I did not play Drizzt Saga as it forced me to kick out 3 other party members to whom I kinda grew attached.

Spoiler

If you have Sandrah and Drizzt for the Drizzt Saga you can keep the rest of your company. A little Tweak, since I hate to loose my companions as well on behalf of the Drizzt gang who have nothing to add to the game.

Thanks for the cheat, I might still be able to complete Shauhana's quest.

 

Speaking of bugs...the only one Sandrah focused that I noticed was when I used Sandrah's ability to "Return from Waterdeep" and...nothing happened. Then I was unable to access BG2 areas and it was quite bad. HOWEVER, after I reloaded a few saves before visiting Waterdeep I used her ability to go there and then her ability to return from there and everything worked fine.

Well, this is a problem that is inherit as well in the planar sphere spell and others. It happens when you encounter some other scene (cutscene, Irenicus dream or similar) between the time to use the spell GoTo and ReturnFrom. The only possible solution I can technically see for this issue is to always return to some default location instead of to where you started from.

I wonder if the bug was due to her automatically initiating the travel to Waterdeep as she was told to come there as soon as possible. When I activated it through her there were no problems.

 

Really weird one time bug it would seem....

The reason is that the function *Store/Re-store party locations* is used here. Since that function is used as well by e.g Imoen's dreams or Irenicus dreams and the game does not store more than one location, you may get this effect.

If that issue is reported often, I would probably be able to provide a PID option that takes the party back to a fixed place in Amn in case the spell fails, maybe the city gates?

 

NB I understand that Sandrah had not yet gained the additional capability for Elminster's parcel that would help out of such a case??

Yes, I will put that PID backdoor option on the list for the next release, even if you may only have use for it only for very rare occasions during chapter 2 + 3 of SoA.

 

If you ever find the problem again, use this cheat until I provide a fix

Spoiler

SetGlobal("SanTravel","GLOBAL",62)

Edited by Roxanne, 13 July 2015 - 08:35 AM.

[Samriel]

Hmmm, some more "I don't know what to do" questions.

 

1.

Spoiler

After smacking most orcs in Stormhorns mountains and rescuing Shauhana after she was captured by orcs she asks me to return her teacher's body to Sharkta Fai. The problem is I don't know how to get there. This place according to the map is north to the place where there is a direction sign but I do not see the "cursor" allowing me to go there. Maybe I need to "activate" the entrance there by using the gem that I found on an orc shaman body in the temple where I found the staff that allows me to leave the place but when I put the staff there in an altar nothing happens. 

 

2. I read in the Sandrah NPC readme that I need to fulfill at least one Mystra related quest but I dunno how can I trigger the Planar mod quest or the Tales of the Anegh and there are no guides for those indicating where can I trigger them. So I though that maybe I will try my luck with Grey Clan mod. I wonder however how far do I need to go through the mod to actually fulfill the conditions to advance Sandrah's quest.

 

In BG1

Spoiler

I defeated the headmistress of the academy with the only threat left being this super strong evil wizard that was using her as a pawn. I heard that this mod got 3 parts so I wondered if I need to complete all 3 of them and if so how do I start part 3.

Since I recall something about you making part 2 and 3 for this mod I though you might give me a hint there^^

 

Thanks in advance

Edited by Samriel, 13 July 2015 - 09:49 AM.

[Roxanne]

Hmmm, some more "I don't know what to do" questions.

 

1.

Spoiler

After smacking most orcs in Stormhorns mountains and rescuing Shauhana after she was captured by orcs she asks me to return her teacher's body to Sharkta Fai. The problem is I don't know how to get there. This place according to the map is north to the place where there is a direction sign but I do not see the "cursor" allowing me to go there. Maybe I need to "activate" the entrance there by using the gem that I found on an orc shaman body in the temple where I found the staff that allows me to leave the place but when I put the staff there in an altar nothing happens. 

Let me see if I get it right

Spoiler

You have freed Shauhana from the prison - you found the dead body of her teacher on the bed in the prison - you defeated Vennegrat and you have the jewel??
Now you return to the crossroads where Sharkta Fai is to the north?
Shauhana should start a conversation with Sandrah - afterwards you receive the message that the passage is now open

What is the value of Global("Sansharkta","GLOBAL") ?

2. I read in the Sandrah NPC readme that I need to fulfill at least one Mystra related quest but I dunno how can I trigger the Planar mod quest or the Tales of the Anegh and there are no guides for those indicating where can I trigger them. So I though that maybe I will try my luck with Grey Clan mod. I wonder however how far do I need to go through the mod to actually fulfill the conditions to advance Sandrah's quest.

The triggers for the planar sphere and tales of anegh are not altered by Sandrah. If my memory is correct, planar sphere starts  about five days after you finished the original planar sphere quest and are rewarded with the sphere given to you as stronghold.

Tales of Anegh is started by a wizard at the southern gate of the Promenade and I think it is after Underdark.

Grey Clan 3 is supposed to be something like last chance if you did not do any of the others before and comes very late in SoA.

In BG1

Spoiler

I defeated the headmistress of the academy with the only threat left being this super strong evil wizard that was using her as a pawn. I heard that this mod got 3 parts so I wondered if I need to complete all 3 of them and if so how do I start part 3.

Since I recall something about you making part 2 and 3 for this mod I though you might give me a hint there^^

 

Thanks in advance

As usual, good old Landrel will seek your help - this triggers very late in SoA, after Underdark and Bodhi.

 

Generally for Sandrah in SoA:

Except for Shauhana, which is up to you when to perform the quest, most of Sandrah's quests in SoA are timed after Underdark. There are several reasons for that

a. you will need to learn more about her and her background before the story can proceed, which is done mostly by the conversations you have in part one of SoA. The experience she makes at your side while you travel Amn are different from the relatively harmless encounters in BG1. This has an impact on developping her personality. She is not the only one to loose the rest of her youthful innocence among the slavers, vampires, corrupt officials etc that fill Amn (The civilised monsters are often worse than the dragons)

b. there is already a lot of quest stuff to be done before you go to Brynlaw but a relatively linear story from the exit of Underdark to Suldanalessar. This leaves much better place for her quests, especially since some of the earlier quests (e.g. strongholds) have some periodic subquests that interupt the flow.

c. the party is experienced enough for the quests

Edited by Roxanne, 13 July 2015 - 10:37 AM.

[Samriel]

You mean click on Shauhana and use the CLUAConsole:Global("Sansharkta","GLOBAL") cheat?

 

Its been a while since I used the global commands last time so I don't remember well how they work.

 

Still, I did so and the game states that "SANSHARKTA GLOBAL does not exist".

 

Spoiler

I waited for 10 minutes at the crossroads place and no talk between Sandrah and Shauhana does start. Except one regarding Minsc but it does nothing. Looks like problems with activating the trigger.

 

And yeah, I got Sharkta Fei jewel plus Clan's Shaman body and nothing happens nevertheless...

Edited by Samriel, 13 July 2015 - 10:44 AM.

[Roxanne]

You mean click on Shauhana and use the CLUAConsole:Global("Sansharkta","GLOBAL") cheat?

It is CLUAConsole:GetGlobal("Sansharkta","GLOBAL") without clicking on any person (selecting a person reads the LOCALS). And it is not a cheat, it is collecting information in a fast way.

 

If that still gives you the *does not exists*, then something went wrong.

Spoiler

.Do you remember you had conversations about Brage's book that Shauhana carries...

 

 

 

Its been a while since I used the global commands last time so I don't remember well how they work.

 

Still, I did so and the game states that "SANSHARKTA GLOBAL does not exist".

 

Spoiler

I waited for 10 minutes at the crossroads place and no talk between Sandrah and Shauhana does start. Except one regarding Minsc but it does nothing. Looks like problems with activating the trigger.

 

And yeah, I got Sharkta Fei jewel plus Clan's Shaman body and nothing happens nevertheless...

[Samriel]

Spoiler

I recall that I had a talk between Sandrah and Shauhana which led to the latter getting Shauhana's book 2. That talk did happen in the slums though and in a different save state unfortunately. Should I wait for that particular talk to happen again? 

 

Btw I noticed how Sandrah's random talks with Drizzt are often cut short after they just begin. Maybe it is related more to BWS not installing it all perfectly than a bug though....

 

Ah...and one thing. Can Sandrah refuse to accompany me in RtF if she got a romance with another party member which is more advanced than her relationship with my PC?

Edited by Samriel, 13 July 2015 - 12:07 PM.

[Roxanne]

Spoiler

I recall that I had a talk between Sandrah and Shauhana which led to the latter getting Shauhana's book 2. That talk did happen in the slums though and in a different save state unfortunately. Should I wait for that particular talk to happen again? 

 

Btw I noticed how Sandrah's random talks with Drizzt are often cut short after they just begin. Maybe it is related more to BWS not installing it all perfectly than a bug though....

Spoiler

This is what is supposed to happen and somehow you missed an event in the chain:
Your PC talks (via PID) to get details of Shauhana's story, how she became a slave of the own people, how she got the scar, etc, You learn how she met Brage of Nashkel.
A time later Shauhana and Sandrah talk about Brage's book, Sandrah gets book2 and starts to study.
At the next rest or after you have the jewel (whatever comes first) she will tell Shauhana about her findings.
All of that is supposed to happen before you leave Clansland.
If then you have the body and the jewel and pass Clan Crossroad on the way back, Shauhana will tell you about the path to Sharkta Fai and the transition in the north of the area opens.

The next phase of the quest starts

Depending on where you are now, there may be a possibility to restore the situation. If I knew where the chain has the weak link I could improve it for the next version.

[Samriel]

Are those talks location triggered or time triggered? While reloading and waiting she mostly talks with Minsc.

 

I think I did not initiate any talks before till I rescued her...

 

Hmmm...

 

Spoiler

That said I got the talk when she the PC sees her scars and I asked her how she became a slave after rescuing her. The talk about Brage did happen in the Slums in a different save state.

 

If I initiated some talks AFTER getting first a couple of talks initiated by her could it mess up the whole process?

Edited by Samriel, 13 July 2015 - 12:29 PM.

[Roxanne]

Are those talks location triggered or time triggered? While reloading and waiting she mostly talks with Minsc.

 

I think I did not initiate any talks before till I rescued her...

 

Hmmm...

 

Spoiler

That said I got the talk when she the PC sees her scars and I asked her how she became a slave after rescuing her. The talk about Brage did happen in the Slums in a different save state.

 

If I initiated some talks AFTER getting first a couple of talks initiated by her could it mess up the whole process?

Spoiler

This is what I understand is the situation in your CURRENT game
-it has no talks about Brage's book yet
-you have Minsc in the party
- you have left Clanland and are somewhere in Amn again
- you still have the jewell and the teacher's body
Correct?

[Samriel]

Pretty much.

 

Also:

 

Spoiler

I reloaded to just before I recruited her and she only got 2 PID at that time. Namely:

 

1. I am wondering what kind of creatures your Clan Hounds really are.

 

2. You are a remarkable fighter Shauhana.

 

Shouldn't it be more or they are unlocked with time triggered conversations? But with Minsc around she asks me and Sandrah precisely about him in her first initiated dialogue. Then she talks with Minsc herself. I was much luckier with her conversations I think when Minsc wasn't in my party when I met her in my previous play-NOT the current one-.

 

Edited by Samriel, 13 July 2015 - 01:12 PM.

[Roxanne]

I think it just happens by dismissing him in Irenicus dungeon as he waits in the inn if I dismiss him in any other place. A tragic end it would seem...

 

And yeah, I did not play Drizzt Saga as it forced me to kick out 3 other party members to whom I kinda grew attached.

Spoiler

If you have Sandrah and Drizzt for the Drizzt Saga you can keep the rest of your company. A little Tweak, since I hate to loose my companions as well on behalf of the Drizzt gang who have nothing to add to the game.

Thanks for the cheat, I might still be able to complete Shauhana's quest.

 

Speaking of bugs...the only one Sandrah focused that I noticed was when I used Sandrah's ability to "Return from Waterdeep" and...nothing happened. Then I was unable to access BG2 areas and it was quite bad. HOWEVER, after I reloaded a few saves before visiting Waterdeep I used her ability to go there and then her ability to return from there and everything worked fine.

Well, this is a problem that is inherit as well in the planar sphere spell and others. It happens when you encounter some other scene (cutscene, Irenicus dream or similar) between the time to use the spell GoTo and ReturnFrom. The only possible solution I can technically see for this issue is to always return to some default location instead of to where you started from.

I wonder if the bug was due to her automatically initiating the travel to Waterdeep as she was told to come there as soon as possible. When I activated it through her there were no problems.

 

Really weird one time bug it would seem....

The reason is that the function *Store/Re-store party locations* is used here. Since that function is used as well by e.g Imoen's dreams or Irenicus dreams and the game does not store more than one location, you may get this effect.

If that issue is reported often, I would probably be able to provide a PID option that takes the party back to a fixed place in Amn in case the spell fails, maybe the city gates?

 

NB I understand that Sandrah had not yet gained the additional capability for Elminster's parcel that would help out of such a case??

Yes, I will put that PID backdoor option on the list for the next release, even if you may only have use for it only for very rare occasions during chapter 2 + 3 of SoA.

 

If you ever find the problem again, use this cheat until I provide a fix

Spoiler

SetGlobal("SanTravel","GLOBAL",62)

 

Sandrah Hotfix 06 is provided now for this issue. It works only if your party is in Sandrah's Garden in Waterdeep

[Roxanne]

Spoiler

I recall that I had a talk between Sandrah and Shauhana which led to the latter getting Shauhana's book 2. That talk did happen in the slums though and in a different save state unfortunately. Should I wait for that particular talk to happen again? 

 

Btw I noticed how Sandrah's random talks with Drizzt are often cut short after they just begin. Maybe it is related more to BWS not installing it all perfectly than a bug though....

You may need HF07 from the hotfixes page.

Ah...and one thing. Can Sandrah refuse to accompany me in RtF if she got a romance with another party member which is more advanced than her relationship with my PC?

No. There is more at stake in RtF than your lovelife.